Learn the Dutch Reach. Save a Cyclist's Life.

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune

A bicyclist avoids an open car door as he maneuvers through traffic on Chicago's North Milwaukee Avenue in August 2018. Questions on a technique that makes drivers less likely to door a cyclist are being added to the state driver’s license exam.

A bicyclist avoids an open car door as he maneuvers through traffic on Chicago's North Milwaukee Avenue in August 2018. Questions on a technique that makes drivers less likely to door a cyclist are being added to the state driver’s license exam. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

When I quizzed Facebook friends about it Thursday, the responses I received included:

“Never heard of it.”

“No idea.”

“I don't even know what the Dutch Reach is. It sounds kinda dirty.”

Not long ago I was among the blissfully ignorant. I somehow missed the news that in August the Illinois legislature passed a bill that adds instruction on the Dutch Reach to the state’s Rules of the Road manual and adds questions about the technique to the state driver’s license exam. Massachusetts is the only other state with such a law.

It was only while reading a story on laws that went into effect on New Year’s Day that I learned the term and realized it made the perfect New Year’s resolution.

Maybe I couldn’t train for a marathon, defeat my anxieties or give up my daily ginger cookie at Peet’s, but this was doable.

Here’s how it works: You’re in a car that’s parallel parked. To exit, you reach for the door handle not with the hand closest to the door but with your other hand.

To put it another way: If you’re the driver, you reach across your body and open the door with your right hand. If you’re a front-seat passenger, you open with your left.

But, you’re wondering, why? Is this some pointless exercise like making me brush my teeth with the unaccustomed hand while standing on one leg?

No. It’s different.

The Dutch Reach — so named because it’s long-standing practice in the Netherlands — is practical. It works because as you swivel to reach the door handle with your far hand, you’re forced to turn toward the side mirror. That action makes it easy to check for bicyclists before you open the door, meaning you’re less likely to door a cyclist.

Reliable statistics on “dooring” crashes are hard to come by, but Chicago’s Active Transportation Alliance estimates that in 2015, there were more than 300 reported in Chicago alone, 50 percent more than in the previous year. The number appears to be going up in other cities too.

But undoing the habits of a lifetime is hard.

Since I learned to drive, way back in the old millennium, I’ve been opening the driver’s door with my left hand. As Chicago’s bike culture has grown, I’ve retrained myself to glance in the side mirror to check for bikes more often than not, but not always.

“If you’ve been opening the door a certain way for many, many years, it’s a difficult habit to break,” concedes Kyle Whitehead at Active Transportation Alliance. He says that having a passenger who nudges you can help.

“I can think of several instances where my wife reminded me and I did the same for her,” Whitehead said.

When I suggested that a driver who already plans to do the Dutch Reach might get testy when reminded by a passenger, he said, “That’s a good thing, right — when the reminder becomes an annoyance because you’re doing it already?”

He’s correct. He’s also correct when he says, “It’s an easy thing for people to do. It’s not costing anyone money, or public money, to do it.”

Easy to do, yes, but it still requires some discipline to learn.

Michael Charney, a retired Massachusetts physician who founded the Dutch Reach Project (www.dutchreach.org) suggests tying a ribbon on the door latch as a reminder.

According to one frequently cited study, it takes an average of 66 days to create a good habit. Julie Anderson, a Chicago bike rider and driver who avidly encourages the technique, testifies to that.

“It took me a while to get used to doing it,” she says. “After remembering, forgetting, remembering, within a couple of months I was in the swing.”

If she can do it, we can do it. And it will be easier than giving up that giant ginger cookie.